The Third One

At the funeral of his schoolmate, the nearly-fifty-year old architect Jiří Mánek meets his former close acquaintance - physician Jarmila. They both are still single. Jarmila has recently returned to Prague after years of work on the frontier. Jiří leaves for a business trip. As a conservationist, he is to grant permission for an adaptation of a Baroque chateau to office spaces. On the road, a pretty young hitchhiker named Eva stops him. Eva is Slovak and her spontaneous behaviour enchants Jiří. He thus does not mind making a short detour and takes Eva all the way to the luxurious cottage of her parents. Eva is a student and she loves enjoying life more than anything. A romance develops between the two people, so different in age and temperament. After some time, however, the initial enchantment gradually fades. Jiří resents Eva's group of noisy schoolmates and the girl begins to be bored with the sedate man. Then Jiří meets Jarmila again and realizes that a woman who is closer to him in age is a much more suitable partner. When Eva leaves for mountains despite his disagreement, Jiří breaks up with her, begins to date Jarmila and asks her to marry him. Eva is taken by surprise by the separation but wants to spend a last love night with Jiří. In the morning, the man wakes up alone. He finds Jarmila and unscrupulously cancels the planned wedding, mistaking what Eva meant as a pleasant way to end their affair for a resumption of the relationship. Eva bluntly rejects him and Jiří decides to choose "the third" - death.